SCOLOPACID^. OOO 



eastern coasts of England, but is only a very rare visitor to the south- 

 Avestern counties. It is fonder of inland streams and pools, by the banks 

 of which it may be met with, than of the sands and oozes of the shore. 

 In Xorth Devon we have never secured an example, although we are 

 certain that we have twice seen a Temminck's Stint when we have been 

 Snipe-shooting in the winter-time by the side of a small pond on the 

 Braunton Burrows. On each occasion we were so close to the little bird 

 that we nearly trod upon it, and failed to shoot it owing to the violence 

 of the wind, which swept it off out of range before we could take any aim. 

 One or two examples have been secured in the south of the county, and 

 in Cornwall Mr. Eodd mentions the marsh at Marazion and the Scilly 

 Islands as having produced one or two Temminck's Stints, adding that it is 

 much rarer than the Little Stint. In Somerset the only one Mr. Cecil 

 Smith knew of at the time he wrote his book was the " Little Sandpiper " 

 Col. Montagu received in Sept. 1805, from his friend Mr. Anstice of 

 Bridgwater, who shot four of this Stint one day at the mouth of the river 

 Brue, and sent one for the ColoneFs collection. In the ' Zoologist ' for 

 1875, p. 4334, he was able to record another which had been shot on the 

 14th jS^ovember in the previous j'ear on Korth Curry moor. From the 

 description Col. Montagu gives of his bird it was evidently a Tem- 

 minck's Stint, as was also another which was shot on the south coast 

 of Devon on a salt-marsh near the sea in N^ovember, and brought to 

 him, which was supposed to have been a Jack Snipe when flushed. Col. 

 Montagu says this small Sandpiper "is about the size of a Hedge-Sparrow, 

 tlic length between five and six inches." 



Temminck's Stint has been shot at Weymouth in September, according 

 to Mr. Mansel-Pleydell, who says it is " by no means common " in Dorset. 

 All our specimens came from the south-eastern counties, and one we have 

 in perfect summer plumage, when there is a good deal of dark brown with 

 pale rufous edgings to the feathers upon the back, was shot at Lewes. 



The American Stint. Tringa minuUlla, \\e\\\. 



An accidental visitor, of extremely rare occurrence. 



This small species is much darker in its plumage than the two Stints 

 we have already described, and is a very rare straggler to this country 

 from the New \Vorld ; the only two which have been obtained have both 

 come from the south-western counties — one from the north of Devon, and 

 the other from Cornwall. The Rev. Marcus llickards. Vicar of Twigworth, 

 Gloucester, who was extremely fortunate in meeting with rare species of 

 Sandpipers in the years when ho was accustomed to shoot at Instow and 

 Northam, secured the first of these two American Stints on tlie lJl!nd 

 Sept. IttOO, on tlie salt-marsh adjoining the jNortham Jkirrows. It was 

 solitary, was very wild, and had boon observed for several days before an 

 o])portiinity occurred to shoot it. " When it rose it always repeated u 

 sliort luirried note, similar to that of the two other .species, thougli perhaps 

 rather .shriller, and mure frt(|U('iitly reiterated. Its iliglit was strong and 



